Sharpe's Opinion
Thursday, 11th Dec, 2008
Love Thy Neighbour, and All That
Apparently, many C of E churches can force nearby landowners to pay for their repair work for them. Legally.
Churches have begun pursuing claims since the House of Lords ruled that Andrew and Gail Wallbank had to pay £186,986, plus VAT, towards the upkeep of St John the Baptist church in Aston Cantlow, near Stratford-upon-Avon. They also had to stump up legal costs of around £220,000.
[…]
According to a 2006 English Heritage report, the Church of England spends £120m a year on repairs, and the backlog of repair bills for all listed places of worship in England is an estimated £925m over five years, or £185m a year.
Is it just me, or is that absolutely bloody disgraceful?
A plague on all their houses.
Tizzy, via email.
Comments
You mean on top of the HIP, the survey and all the other **** you have to do to buy a house? This property thing sounds rubbish. I might have to stick to renting…
I just can’t believe the church feel that using the law is justifiable in any way!
Blue Eyes, the article does refer to some slightly dodgy bandwagon selling by insurance companies, and also the aituation will become clearer in 2013 (why so late, no idea).
As Stu says, there is no way that this sort of search is covered by a HIP, again proving them useless.
The CofE is a cats cradle of charities with annual receipts of millions. They can’t be that short to prefer making people homeless, surely? Not really the sort of promo they want just before Christmas.
Finally, if the CofE is so tight, then the people who are to be called upon to cough up should be involved at the first stage of any repair work, not at the invoice stage.
Good luck to the Wallbanks.
A Rev replies:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/11/anglicanism-religion
…but, as the guidance quoted in the article explains, churches are charities and are legally bound “to exercise their powers in [the charity’s] best interests. They cannot … simply choose not to enforce chancel repair liability”.
Sounds a familiar excuse. Anyway, as you would expect from Guardian readers, the Nays have it. Some decent comments, too.
Dave Cameron, take note before you hive off social services et al to the ‘Third Sector’.
Surprised you hadn’t heard of this before! When you buy a house or flat you now do a chantry repair survey to see if you are in the jurisdiction of a church likely to need repairing. You can also buy insurance against any charge.
The law really needs changing!
Blue Eyes
December 11, 2008 at 10:22 pm